September 2021

A lot of small-scale drama on this venerable willow oak. I first noticed the Bald-faced Hornets at two different spots on the trunk. At this spot, they were actually going underneath the bark. I suspect they were after leaking sap. But it wasn’t just wasps. There were also flies, all rather smaller than the wasps.…

Hackberry Mosaic Virus. Also called island chlorosis. Not much explication of this, probably because the damage is cosmetic. I’d wager the genus is even in question. Viruses, people, are strange.

All perched together in a dying American chestnut.

At lease 46 people were killed in the region when the remnants—the remnants, mind you—of Ida poured through Wednesday night. So far, that’s a higher total than in Louisiana. Historic amounts of rainfall resulted in people drowning in their basement apartments; and the NYC subway system shutting down. Physics: a hotter atmosphere is a wetter…

The sheer awfulness of Susan Collins rings out in her speech on her vote for alleged rapist Kavanaugh “In short, his views on honoring precedent would preclude attempts to do by stealth that which one has committed not to do overtly.” Not that I’m going to spare the execrable Joe Manchin, the only Democrat to…

These two species are usually seen in flight, meaning barely seen at all as they zip around, but I found two Wandering and one Spot-Winged perched in the same patch on a recent overcast morning.